Notes from a bibliophile

It’s been a while since I posted anything on here. Part of the reason is that I haven’t really had anything to write about; the other part is I’m not sure anyone really cares what I think. Now at least, I’ve found something I want to tell people about, no matter how few people see it. I joined Moviepass a few months ago. I won’t shill it here, but I think it’s great. If you want more information let me know & I’ll wax rhapsodic there. The thing I love most about it is that it makes me feel able to see films I wouldn’t normally see. There’s at least four films I’ve seen since joining that I wouldn’t have seen without Moviepass, and every one of them I have enjoyed. Maybe I’ll write more on those later. Three Identical Strangers is a documentary that is hard to believe is true. What would you do if you suddenly found out you had a twin? When 19-year-old Bobby attends his first day of college, he is greeted warmly by every stranger he meets, but they all keep calling him Eddie. Af...

Back in the day, I worked at a little mom-and-pop video store. It was pretty cool. We rented VHS and Beta. They had a pretty awesome backlist of titles, too many to work through. Also a lot of soft porn. The best was working on Saturday mornings. The boss didn’t come in til late in the day, and no one came in the story, or if they did, it was just to drop off and run back out. So you had all morning and an extensive library at your fingertips. I saw Eraserhead on one of those Saturdays, and after I transferred to closing their other branch, I was able to watch pretty much watch the entire run of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Not to mention the screeners we’d get in advance of the tapes hitting the shelves. Those were good times. A friend and I had a pool going every year about which of us could predict the most Oscar wins. I invariably lost every year, because I tend to vote with my heart and not like an Oscar voter (and who knows what they vote with). Granted, I haven’t seen a lot of...

For such a short month, February already looks like a much more promising month than January. I’ve never paid this much attention to it before, so maybe that’s the way it always is. But there’s one thing that I find that’s really annoying me. The point of making and distributing a film/television show is to get viewers. Viewers bring in revenue, which means people can make more films and television shows that viewers will want to watch. Pretty basic stuff. So why, pray tell, am I finding it so hard to access trailers for upcoming titles? It’s not like I’m trying to see a trailer of Infinity War  or anything. These things are a month or so out. If I can’t find something online by now that intrigues me enough to say, I gotta see that, then someone is not doing their job. More on that later. First up, on February 2nd, there’s two Netflix originals that look really promising while appearing to be worlds apart. First is Altered Carbon . I...

It’s like Hollywood suffers from the same post-holiday stupor as the rest of us. They’ve had too much turkey all year and finally have to put on their stretchy pants before falling asleep in the BarcaLounger in front of whatever sports game they happen to be interested in. Hardly anything of interest comes out in January. Here’s what I could scrape together: On January 1st, there’s a French thriller called Glacé which is about a murder in the Alps. On January 12, The Post hits movie theatres. It tells the story of The Washington Post ’s decision to go against White House orders to publish information about the Vietnam War. It may get a lot of airtime,  what with one side bashing it as maybe where journalism begin its foray into “fake news” and the other side peraising it as a shining beacon of journalistic integrity. I’m sure it’ll get lots of nominations too. On Amazon Prime - which now has an app on Apple TV and I apparently have an account ( who knew?!?) - Philip K Dick’s ...

I struggled to get books read this year, and those I did read were mostly graphic novels. I’ve also read a lot of Brian K Vaughan. I wanted to like his stuff as much as I liked Y: The Last Man, but I didn’t. What’s not so obvious is that a lot of the graphic novels I really liked were by Image Comics. I’m not sure what that means, but I may be checking out more of their stuff in 2018. Here’s what I eventually worked my way through this year: Outcast Vol. 3 by Robert Kirkman & Paul Azaceta The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Saga Vol 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 by Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples The Monk by Matthew Lewis Wolverine: Logan by Brian K Vaughan, Eduardo Russo, & Dean White East of West Vol 2 by Jonathan Hickman & Nick Dragotta Pride of Baghdad by Brian K Vaughan & Niko Henrichon We Stand On Guard by Brian K Vaughan, Steve Skroce, & Matt Hollingsworth The Private Eye by Brian K Vaughan, Marcos Martin, & Muntsa Vicente Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin...

It’s the end of the year and it’s time to look back on what happened in the previous twelve months. February Kong: Skull Island, which I liked pretty well, and A Cure For Wellness. I’ve already written my thoughts about that in another blog. Short version, meh. March Logan, which I really liked, and Beauty and the Beast, which was pointless. I’m boycotting live action remakes of animated films. April Colossal. Really good! June Wonder Woman Spider-Man: Homecoming Despicable Me 3. Unfortunately. July Dunkirk (LOVE) The Dark Tower Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (biggest disappointment of the year) November Blade Runner 2049 Thor: Ragnarok (probably tied for favorite film of the year) Justice League The Star Murder on the Orient Express Coco December Ferdinand The Darkest Hour The Shape of Water (bizarre but good) Star Wars: The Last Jedi 😢